The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c18.26

v4.c18.26

Although the Deccan had hitherto been the scene of the most important events affecting the empire military operations had been undertaken elsewhere, especially in Bengal. Nearly a century earlier the Portuguese had obtained a footing at Hooghly, whence they traded to other parts of India, to China, the Moluccas and Manilla. They had a monopoly of the manufacture of salt and practically exercised their own administration in the settlement. Converts and half-castes were numerous, and the new port gained at the expense of Sātgāon a little higher up the river and Sonārgāon in eastern Bengal. Some of the inhabitants joined the half-castes of Chittagong, descended from Portuguese refugees from Goa, who were notorious pirates and ravaged the rich districts of eastern Bengal. During the reign of Jahāngīr the Portuguese had been left very much to themselves by the Mughul governors, who moved their headquarters from Sonārgāon in 1608 to Dacca, calling it Jahāngīrnagar, after the emperor. Qāsim Khān, who became governor soon after the accession of Shāh Jahān, reported to the emperor that the Portuguese were a danger as they had fortified their settlement, levied tolls on ships that passed it, and had ruined Sātgāon. He also called attention to their complicity in piracy¹ and their practice of kidnapping or purchasing children and disposing of them as slaves. These statements reminded the emperor of his own personal reasons for disliking the foreigners. During the first successes of Shāh Jahān's rebellion against his father the governor of Hooghly, who was afraid of an attack on that place after Burdwān had fallen, visited the prince. Shāh Jahān had a high opinion of the value of the European gunners employed by the Portuguese and offered great rewards for their services. The governor, while sensible of the immediate danger to his settlement during the temporary collapse of imperial power in Bengal, did not believe in the possibility of the ultimate success of the rebel. Unfortunately for the Portuguese the language of his refusal to help was reported to have been very insulting. At a later stage the Portuguese gave some assistance to Parvīz. When Shāh Jahān succeeded to the throne the foreigners omitted to recognise the accession by the usual presents. The late empress had also had a personal grievance during the flight, as one of the Portuguese had first given some help and had then deserted, carrying off boats one of which contained two slave girls who belonged to her. A striking example of the lawlessness of the time occurred in 1629, when a Portuguese from the Magh territory in eastern Bengal plundered a village near Dacca and violently assaulted a Mughul lady.² Shāh Jahān thus welcomed the proposal of Qāsim Khān that these troublesome aliens who did not conform to Islām and who were actively injurious to the realm should be suppressed.